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Mar 18 2021

Covid and Congregations: What’s in Store for 2021?

by Mary Frances


Our Webinar series continues on April 27, 2021
Click Here to Register


Covid, Covid, Covid!  

A little over a year ago, you might not have heard about it or given it much thought.  Today it’s in the news all day, every day.  But sometimes it’s hard to know what to think.

In local news today, the governor of my state (Illinois) is about to bring us into Phase 5 which, I think, is pretty much fully open… keeping the mask mandate, though.  I saw Dr. Fauci on TV a few days ago.  He said not to rush to open, that there is still a lot of concern about variants and, at this point, only a small percentage of the population has been fully vaccinated.  And recently, my 90-year-old mother tested positive for Covid while under hospice care and in the dying process and yet they offered to treat her for Covid if we wanted.  For her sake we declined but then I wondered, what would that treatment look like?  As I said, sometimes it’s just hard to know what to think, who to believe, and how to live out our lives in what is not really a post-Covid era… yet.   

[Read more…]

Written by Mary Frances · Categorized: COVID-19, FaithX Blog · Tagged: Coronavirus, COVID, COVID19, Dr. Gayle Balba, hybrid worship, in-person worship, Mary Frances, online worship, Webinar

Mar 03 2021

Covid & Congregations: What lies ahead in 2021 (webinar)

3/17/21 (Weds) | 1:00pm-2:00pm (ET)
Click here to register


Our Third-Wednesday Webinar series continues on March 17, 2021 with
“Covid and Congregations: What Lies Ahead In 2021?”

click here for our complete 2021 event schedule


We know more about Covid-19 today than we did a year ago when we went into lockdown, yet some days it seems there are still more questions than answers. We now have vaccinations, but what about variants? We seem closer now to returning to in-person worship, but haven’t we been here before? When is the other shoe going to drop? Just as important, what should we be doing in the meantime? And what should we be planning for our congregations in the days, weeks, and months ahead?

[Read more…]

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: COVID-19, FaithX Blog · Tagged: Coronavirus, coronavirus impact planning report, COVID, COVID19, ken Howard, Mary Frances, social vulnerability, Steve Matthews, Take Home Resources, Webinar

Jun 08 2020

Webinar (June 17) – Reopening Church in a New Reality: Re-Visioning in a Changing Context

Reopening Church in a New Reality: Re-Visioning in a Changing Context

6/17/20 (Next Wednesday) | 1:00pm-2:00pm (ET)

Webinar Description:

Before we reopen our congregations in the wake of COVID-19, we have to get clear about the “WHY” of our congregations, so that we may adapt our ministries to the needs of our new contexts without losing our reasons for being. Come and explore with us what needs to change so the really important things can “remain the same.”

This webinar is the first in a 3-part series entitled: Reopening Church in a New Reality. The next two webinars will be:

  • 7/18/20 – Considerations for Leading a Hybrid Congregation (online and in the building)
  • 8/12/20 – Discerning Your Congregation’s Post-COVID Calling

Webinar Hosts:

  • Mary Frances, FaithX Senior Consultant (Host)
  • Steve Matthews, FaithX Senior Consultant (Co-Host)
  • Ken Howard, FaithX Principal Consultant (Co-Host)

For More Info: mary@faithx.net

Click Here to Register

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Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: COVID-19, FaithX Blog, FaithX News · Tagged: Coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19, COVID19, hybrid congregation, ken Howard, Mary Frances, post-COVID, reopening, reopening church, Steve Matthews, Webinar

Jan 02 2020

Looking Back on 2019

by Ken Howard

2019 was a good year for FaithX. It had its ups and downs – a rollercoaster ride, for sure, at times – but all-in-all, both despite and because of it all, we came through 2019 much stronger, with a clearer vision of who we are and where we are going, and with many successes to energize us. 

We’ve come a long way since we launched in December of 2016. Back then it was just me as FaithX’s executive director/principal (and only) consultant, a 4-person volunteer board of directors, and one client, the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland and its two newest congregations. 

Over the next two years, we would establish our affiliation with Datastory, collaborate with them to prototype, develop, beta test, and launch the next-generation demographic analysis and missional planning platform, which would become known as MapDash for Faith Communities, added about a dozen clients, two associate consultants, a blog coordinator, a volunteer research director, and publish a ground-breaking research paper entitled “The Religion Singularity.” 

In 2019 we broadened our reach even further. We expanded our work not only into more Episcopal dioceses, congregations, and organizations, but more importantly, branching out into more than five additional “denominations” (i.e., including the non-denominational movement), and have begun discussions with interfaith and non-Christian faith traditions. We launched a new peer-reviewed journal about religion and ministry. We worked with Datastory to develop and launch the new Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Report, and we designed the consultative Neighborhood Missional Assessment program to help congregations identify emerging missional opportunities and challenges in the neighborhoods they serve. 

And so I’d like to offer my appreciation to all of those who have joined FaithX on our experimental missional journey through the end of religion as we know it into the future of faith in whatever form God is calling it into being…

[Read more…]

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: FaithX Blog, Posts by Ken Howard · Tagged: Congregational Sustainability Index, Congregational Vitality Index, Darren Slade, datastory, Datastory Consulting, Diocese of Georgia, Episcopal Diocese of Central Gulf Coast, Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma, Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Evangelical Presbyterian Church, faithx, FaithXperimental Blog, MapDash for Faith Communities, Mary Frances, Matt Felton, missional opportunity index, Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Assessment, Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Report, Steve Matthews, the Episcopal Church, the religion singularity, The Roman Catholic Church, Tom Brackett, Year In Review

Mar 28 2019

Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Report – A New MapDash Feature

By Mary Frances, Senior Associate Consultant

The Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Report is a snapshot of data from a 15 minute DriveTime (or other DriveTime of your choice) around a given address.  It’s just one of the many features available to you via MapDash for Faith Communities.  Put in the address of a local congregation or town and quickly find out generational predominance, median age and income, unemployment rate, access to transportation, and much more.  At a glance, you can start to identify where you might need more information and what to do with the information you have. If you can get all this at a glance, wouldn’t you want to dig deeper?

[Read more…]

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: FaithX Blog, Uncategorized · Tagged: drivetime analysis, MapDash for Faith Communities, Mary Frances, Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Report

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